I have some "allowance" ($20 a month, baby) and birthday money saved up, and I've been spending an undisclosable amount of time (too much) browsing etsy.com for things I want to buy for my room. It has come down to a search for my favorite wood and linoleum block prints. I was talking to an artist friend about my search yesterday, and I showed her a few of my favorites. She said, "oh, you could easily make these yourself." No, I couldn't. "Yes, it would not be hard," she assured me. Later in the day, I continued thinking about this. She may not realize that I can't draw--that I'm not good with detail work, or with my hands. It never in a million years would have occurred to me that I could actually make these things which I admire so much. I have wished I could make such things, but not with any hope of actually being able to do it.
This morning my thoughts had taken a new direction. As I drove to school I saw things everywhere I looked that I would like to make prints of. I was thinking about the print I ordered last night, and how much I love it, and how it is just a simple symbolic, not literal, representation of a beautiful landscape. I might be able to do symbolic. The prints that I am most drawn to, besides landscapes, are trees, some flowers, and lots of abstract geometrical designs. Tonight as I continue my search through the print makers selling on etsy, I can see how willing I am to pay for circles and squares, if they are carved into a block and printed on good paper with vibrant ink. I am thinking, I can draw circles and squares. Heck, I doodle designs all the time on my papers. What I cannot draw is a cat that looks like a cat. The cats I draw today look exactly like the cats I drew when I was four years old. Exactly. Dan sits in church and draw things for the girls that look just like those things. Not me. I guess I have been thinking I could only create visual art through photography, since I can't draw. But I have very little interest in technology and gadgets and figuring out how to use the intricate machine which is a camera. What I want to be able to do is somehow capture and record the beautiful things I see around me: the forests and beaches in Oregon; all of my favorite trees in Ann Arbor; the high deserts of sagebrush and lava rock in Idaho; glorious sunsets.
Maybe I can.
3 comments:
Cool! Show us when you complete your first work! OR your second, or whichever one you like best.
Can't wait to see what you choose, Ms. Picasso!
I know you can do it! I, too, am impaired in this field. But I have discovered that I can sort of "draw" something if I find a line drawing of it online. Maybe you can find someone in the ward that does this kind of stuff to teach you. The ward there always seemed to have endless resources as far as talent goes.
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